Stuff the Suggestion Box

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Personally, a significant raise in pay would do wonders. I've said before that people will put up with a lot if the money is there. I haven't changed my mind.

Why haven't I left, then? I love my job and the people I work with are great.

HR policies here are bizarre. I'm forced to swipe in and out every day, otherwise I get a phone call. You want to nickel-and-dime me over a few minutes? Fine, I want to be paid for every free minute of overtime I give the Company.

I've been around long enough to see through the smoke. All the petty stuff is no matter to me. Young guys get all ticked off because they haven't yet seen that all Companies are basically the same.

As to your statement: "Young guys get all ticked off because they haven't yet seen that all Companies are basically the same." Yes, it is an interesting dynamic in human relationships that is influenced by one person being put in a position of superiority over others and being charged with serving company goals, which are in turn, usually set by people above the supervisor. He may have some input on such decisions, and he may even query his subordinates for their opinions to pass along to upper management regarding company policies. It's the reason most people shudder at the thought of being a "manager." It's an uncomfortable feeling to be charged with controlling others. It can become especially uncomfortable if a supervisor is chosen from the ranks and now has to enforce company rules, etc. with the "tribe" he came from. Middle and lower management can be difficult. Some should be given empathy for their plight.

Time clocks set a bad tone from the beginning for employees, as far as I'm concerned. It says, "We (management) don't trust you to give us an honest day's work. There will always be people willing to abuse the freedom of no punch cards, but unless the company is quite large, a supervisor is aware of those people and can speak with them privately to try to get the desired behavior. The main purpose of a time clock is to document transgressions. I guess if the CEO of the company is willing to punch a card along with everybody else, then it doesn't sting so much. I don't recall ever seeing that happen, though.

So my suggestion would be to treat workers like adults and with respect. I've seen (and been one) employees willing to sacrifice monetarily for the company as long as the managers/owners are honest about any financial hardships the company faces and the sacrifices are shared equitably. But one slip, where employees feel deceived, and it's hard to get their trust (and devotion) back.

Don't make me laugh.

I work in an office where about 25 people share 1 printer. I timed people waiting in line, priced various printers and submitted the data that showed a savings of between 2 and 5 thousand dollars per employee per year if we bought everyone their own printer. It was turned down as contrary to company policy.

I submitted a whole list of studies that showed up to 40% increase in productivity if the heavy computer users have 2 (or more) screens to work with. It was turned down with no particular reason at all.

I will do my work collect my pay cheque and go home.

At a previous job I supervised almost 100 people and was pretty lax about starting times. I kept my eye on the project tiemline and as long as that was going ahead of schedule i was fine with it. My supervisor however, a government trained statistician, didn't like the fact that people had any freedom or control in their jobs and was determined to put a stop to this. I saw that coming so I was monitoring how much free overtime I was getting from people working late just because they liked to. some night I had staff stay past midnight just to get some problem solved. Sure enough, one morning the "boss" stood by the door with a stop watch informing everyone how many minutes (or seconds) they were late. In those 10 minutes I lost over 200 free hours of work per week from my staff.

I have dozens of stories like this, I gave up making suggestions a while back.

A good example of blind devotion to company "policy." This is the very sort of thing that sours the attitude of the whole non-management pool. Too bad workers can't demand a meeting with upper management responsible for such inane policies.

This leads to another suggestion... if the top people in a company want accountability from employees, then they should lead by example. They should be willing to face employees in a town hall type meeting on a regular basis and answer questions. Policies could be explained or shown to be faulty logic. Or, in your case, shown to be foolish, given the data you submitted. If the only explanation for a policy is "that's just the way it is," then at least management should be willing to be dictatorial in a face to face meeting. (Anonymous questions should be welcomed, since most people would be hesitant to ask hard questions and sign their names to them for fear of reprisals. Just ask whistle-blowers about reprisals.) I have never worked at a company where such meetings occur on a regular basis.

I think employee-owned companies lead to the best employee satisfaction. (An inspiring story is shown in the documentary, "The Take." It is very relevant to the "occupy" movements going on around the world.

How about stuffing the suggestion box as in the sense of stuffing a ballot box? Maybe multiple copies of the same suggestion might get some results.

My last 2 long term gigs

Had suggestion programs

both companies, pulled me aside & requested that I not make quite so many suggestions.

the last company in particular, I used the program to put managers on the spot. there was a monthly meeting where all the suggestions were reviewed. A properly phrased question about deviation from procedure, would cause questions that the head of the offending department would have to answer